Members Statements in the Ontario Legislature
ODA Legislation

Wayne Lessard, NDP MPP, Windsor-Riverside: ... One of the things that really struck me in the throne speech was the
mention of the Ontarians with Disabilities Act committee, and that act
generally. I guess if there was one positive element of that mention,
that was the fact that it got mentioned at all. When I speak to people in my
community like Dean Labute, who is the chair of the Windsor-Essex
Ontarians with Disabilities Act committee, he expresses to me his complete
disappointment that this government, when they had an opportunity to
introduce legislation that had some real teeth, some real protection for
the most vulnerable in our community, an opportunity to provide benefit
for those persons with disabilities, protection for those persons,
completely abandoned that responsibility, and when they had the chance in the
throne speech to say that they were going to introduce a meaningful Ontarians
with Disabilities Act, they abandoned that responsibility and instead said
only that they were going to consult further. But at least they recognized
that the legislation they had introduced last November, Bill 83, was
fundamentally flawed. It wasn't going to provide the protection that
persons with disabilities were looking for, it wasn't going to assist
the most vulnerable in our community, and it wasn't going to provide them
with the opportunities they were looking for in transportation, in education
and in health care. The government had an opportunity to say clearly that
they were going to introduce legislation, but they didn't do that. ...